Modeling a New Christmas Sweater

Uncle Kyle is Hilarious

Sarah and her boyfriend Kyle are visiting for the holidays and have been taking care of Oliver. Kyle has been able to make Oliver crack up with some fake sneezes. That Kyle is hilarious, it must be that southern accent....

Christmas Morning!

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with Oliver. He had a stocking with toys from Santa and from his mommy and daddy he got a cool train to ride on and push. As you can see from the photos, he thinks the train is pretty cool!

Oliver's First Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve at Nana and Grandpapa's house - meatballs, mashed potatoes, lefse and oodles of presents. Oliver was able to stay up a bit past his bedtime and party with his big cousins. I am looking forward to the years to come when these little ones will just have more and more fun together. Thanks Nana and Grandpapa for a magical night!

Sledding!

Oliver got a "baby boggan" as an early Christmas gift, so a couple of days before Christmas we were out at Matt's parents house and tried it out. The snow was so deep, it was hard for us to even walk through it, but Oliver seemed to have a good time. We are looking forward to doing a little more baby bogganing up on the North Shore in January.

Snuggle Bug

Matt usually gets up to feed Oliver his first bottle of the day (at about 5:30 am) because Matt is much more of a morning person than I am, but this morning Matt was in bed sick, so I was up early feeding Oliver. As I said, I am not much of a morning person, but I had such a great morning with Oliver today, I may just need to do some more of the early morning feedings.

I brought Oliver back to bed with me for his feeding and then he fell asleep on my chest. I was realizing how special that is to have such a sweet little guy sleeping on your chest and I just laid there taking in how precious he is. He woke up again a 6:30 with a smile on his face and we stayed snuggled up in bed together until 7:00. He was being so sweet. He has started to give "eskimo kisses" (is that still a PC term?) and was giving me bunches of them and babbling away. I am one lucky mama!

Pulling Up and Waving Bye-Bye

Oliver is almost nine months old and this week he has a couple of new tricks. Tonight he finally was able to successfully pull himself up to standing in his crib. He was pretty proud of himself. He also is starting to wave, which is adorable. I will try to get that on video to post later - but here are a couple of photos of Oliver standing in his crib.

Playing with Sammy

Some Recent Favorites

Playing with Sammy

Crawling!

ECFE

8 Month Update

Oliver is now 8 months old and he is just getting more and more fun. I wanted to do a quick post with some of the things he is up to lately.

• He started crawling this last weekend, which is so much fun to see
• He loves making what Matt and I call "monster noises". It is a throaty growl and he has been doing it all the time.
• He still kicks his feet like crazy. When he is laying on his back he will kick his feet against the floor - which seems like it would hurt, but doesn't seem to bother him - we have been trying to keep him on padded surfaces as a result.
• He also likes to kick his feet when someone picks him up under his arms, which looks pretty hilarious - kind of like a cartoon character running through the air
• He is very giggly, he thinks peek-a-boo is hilarious and loves when Mom and Dad dance.
• His favorite toy is his stacking cups from Ikea
• He has started eating Cheerios, which he seems to really like
• He likes when we sing and loves the "Cuckoo Clock" song at ECFE
• He has learned to take off his own diaper, which is a bit dangerous. We have to get him dressed fast before his quick little hands can pull up the tabs. A couple of times I have left him on his playmat in just his diaper and came back seconds later to find a naked Oliver.
• He still loves his pacifier
• He is very smiley!

We sure are lucky to have such a great little guy!

Crawling!

Oliver started crawling this weekend and he is getting better at it everyday!

New Foods!

Now that Oliver has hit the 6 month mark, he is exploring a whole new world of food possibilities. So far he is eating rice cereal, pears, sweet potatoes, peas and prunes (the prunes are because he may have had a bit too much rice cereal - oops...) Here are some photos of his recent meals. As you can see, much of it is still ending up on him instead of in him.

Just a Couple Recent Favorites

Showing off his sitting skills

A Busy Couple of Weeks

It has been awhile since I updated Oliver's blog. We have had a very busy couple of weeks. Matt's aunt Sandy, who was an absolutely wonderful woman, passed away a few weeks ago and last weekend we flew to Arizona for her memorial service. It was nice to see everyone during this difficult time and most of all, it was really wonderful to take some time to remember Sandy. Sandy was extremely loving, encouraging, creative and a whole lot of fun. We will miss her so much. Below are some photos of Sandy that I thought were particularly beautiful.
We stayed at a very nice hotel while were in Arizona. Here is Oliver and Matt snugglin' in the big king sized bed - pretty luxurious - a king sized bed would pretty much take up our entire bedroom :)

The other thing that kept us busy in the last couple of weeks was that Oliver got his first illness. Poor kid had what we think was hand, foot and mouth. He had a fever and a sore throat and we were pretty much homebound through the entire Labor Day weekend. But, he healed quickly and he is back to his happy self!

Sitting...Sort of

Tonight Oliver and I worked on sitting. He seems to be able to sit for about 3 to 5 seconds and then he realizes he is sitting and falls over. Here are some photos from our various sitting attempts this evening. The video is of the longest successful sitting attempt of the night - enjoy!

Oliver, Chicken. Chicken, Oliver.

We had a great morning with Melanie and Emily today. We met up at the farmers market in Minneapolis and then went back to their place for some delicious broccoli salad, lattes and bruschetta. This summer Melanie and Emily have been raising chickens in their beautiful backyard, so Oliver got a chance to meet one of the chickens.

Rice Cereal!

Oliver had his first solid food last Saturday. Of course, the first time around much of the food ended up on him instead of in his mouth, but in the last week he seems to be improving his technique and actually swallowing some of it. Here are some photos from his first attempt.

The food.

The game face.

The technique.

Looking good!

Abs of Steel

Oliver's New Tricks

Oliver doing "boat pose"

Oliver is now 5 months old and he has a bunch of new tricks. He still absolutely hates tummy time, but it is clear that he would like a different vantage point than he gets just laying on his back, so he has started doing what they call "boat pose" in yoga, lifting both his head and feet off the ground. I would recommend trying this yourself - it is really hard! He also has perfected the technique of putting his own pacifier in his mouth. Also, last week he held is own bottle and fed himself for a little while. His last new trick is our least favorite. He has started to squeal with excitement quite frequently. The sound of the squeal or scream is deafening and high pitched -- lots of fun!

Dancing!

Some video of the kiddos bustin' a move!

Brock and Rayna's Birthday Bash

Today was Brock and Rayna's birthday dance party. Rayna is 1 and Brock is 3. We had a great time and Oliver even got to wear a party hat. The kids were really throwing down. Here are some photos from the fun event!

Aunt Sandy - A very special lady!

As I mentioned in the previous post, Matt's Aunt Sandy is very sick right now. Sandy is an incredible quilter and over the years she has made us many gifts that we will cherish, a quilt for our wedding, a skirt for our Christmas tree and a Christmas pillow, but Oliver's blanket might just take the cake for the best Aunt Sandy gift ever. It hangs over Oliver's changing table and he loves to look at all of the colors and animals.

Sandy, you are so loved!

We love you Aunt Sandy!

This video is from a very fun night at the Outer Banks. A couple of weeks after returning home from the trip, Matt's Aunt Sandy discovered she has a very aggressive form of cancer. She is very sick right now and we are all holding her in our thoughts and prayers. Sandy is so much fun and full of energy. We love you Sandy!

A Visit From Aunt Sarah and Kyle

Lucky Oliver has spent the last couple of days with his Aunt Sarah and her boyfriend Kyle who are visiting from Little Rock. He has been playing hookie from daycare and having a great time. Oliver has been showing them around the Twin Cities. Today they went to the farmers market on Nicollet Mall and then to Target Field. I think we may need to convince Sarah and Kyle to move into our basement permanently and be Oliver's full time nannies... As you can tell from the last photo, all of this activity has been pretty exhausting for the little man.

Loving His Exersaucer

We decided last weekend that it was time for Oliver to take it to the next level in the toy department, since he is now a whopping four months old :) So we picked up an exersaucer and he seems to really like it. We have the height on the lowest setting and his feet barely reach the ground, just his little toesies can touch. Even though he is still a little small for it, he is reaching out and grabbing for the toys and has start to twirl himself around. As you can see from the smile on his face in the pictures below - he is having a good time!